Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Tunnel vision focus key for Ross County manager John Hughes ahead of Dundee United clash

Ross County manager John Hughes.
Ross County manager John Hughes.

Shutting out the noise can help Ross County focus on the job of staying in the Premiership, starting today at Dundee United.

That’s the view of Staggies manager John Hughes as he gets his 11th-placed team ready to go for goals and a clean sheet if at all possible at Tannadice this afternoon.

With only games against bottom side Hamilton on May 12 and Motherwell four days later to conclude a high pressure season, Hughes is happy with how his players have responded since losing 3-1 to St Mirren 10 days ago.

The heat is on for County to score their first league victory since beating fellow relegation rivals Kilmarnock on March 6 – that’s five fixtures ago.

That’s why the focus has been very much in-house, according to Hughes, who stressed: “We can’t overthink our situation.

“We can’t read the articles about Ross County or have any outside influences. We have to focus on what we are doing. You have to take it as it comes and embrace it. We’re looking at all the small details and I said don’t expect it all to happen on a Saturday if you are not doing it on the training pitch. You train how you play.”

Ross Draper battles for possession in Ross County’s recent 3-1 defeat against St Mirren.

United, who lined up next week’s Scottish Cup semi-final shot at Hibs by beating Aberdeen 3-0 on Sunday, will go into this clash with confidence. Despite just missing out on the top six, they have won five of their last six matches.

Hughes concedes that United are the better side, but he expects his players to forget the stats and roll up their sleeves to deliver as they have on several occasions this term.

He said: “It is just about picking the right team and the right tactics and let Dundee United know they are in a game. They will expect a hard game. If I’m honest, they are probably a better team than us and their cup run shows that.

“But Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen are better teams than us and we beat them, so we have to be at it, clever and calculated and disciplined to get the three points.”

Ross County striker Jordan White (left) and Billy Mckay will be going for goals at Tannadice.

The Victoria Park boss has been driving his group on this week, pressing for one final push as the season reaches boiling point.

He added: “All credit to them because there has been a real intensity in their training. A lot of it comes from my big voice hollering out demands, getting into them and not letting them away with anything. ‘That’s not acceptable, you’re better than that, come on.’

“From the intensity in training, I can see they are taking it on board and now I hope they can take that into the game on Saturday. The games with the real intensity are the games that we’ve won. I hope that will be the case on Saturday.”